2 Last Minute Questions

[dabaum471]

Hi guys! I have a few last minute questions before Monday's exam that I'd appreciate instructor feedback on as I haven't found answers in the forum. If others are curious about similar topics, please feel free to chime in, and best of luck to every one taking the LSAT next week!

-When logically negating a statement for Assumption questions, which part of the statement are we to logically negate? I assume it's the verb but I'm struggling to lock it down. (I'm good to go with the logical opposites of always and not always / some and none but don't see how that comes into play on these and similar question types.)

-When asked to strengthen or weaken an argument, I'm aware the first step is to isolate the conclusion and focus on helping/hurting that specific conclusion as written. However, I feel like I've seen instances where correct answers are directed towards other aspects of the stimulus, not necessarily the conclusion (well, I guess indirectly they support the conclusion). So I'm wondering what's allowed in strengthening/weakening questions essentially.

Thank you!!

[Alex Bodaken]

dabaum471,

Thanks for the questions! First of all, good luck on Monday - go kill it! Let me see if I can help.

For the assumption negation technique, the key is that you need to logically negate the question, as you know. You are right that it is often a verb, but there are so many different ways that the LSAT can phrase answer choices that it is impossible for me to clearly give a negation for every one. Often, answer choices will contain a clause that says something like "are experienced..." in which case the negation would be "are not experienced..."; or will say something like "makes the process more productive" in which the negation would be "makes the process less productive..." But again, I can't possible list all of them out; your task is to find the argument made in the answer choice and think of what the opposite of it would be.

As to strengthen and weaken questions, you are right to focus on the conclusion, but also right to note that conclusions can be straightened or weakened by strengthening or weakening the premises that form that conclusion. Therefore, a correct weaken answer choice could represent a scenario in which a key premise is weakened, while a correct strengthen answer choice could represent a scenario in which a key premise is strengthened.

Hope that helps!
Alex